As a judge ruled in favor of HTC against an Apple patent in the UK, a US court judge agreed to issue an injunction against two Samsung devices during a hearing for another patent.

Apple faced HTC in a UK court, alleging that HTC's use of the “slide to unlock” feature on its phones infringed on an Apple patent. The judge ruled in favor of HTC, declaring Apple’s patent invalid. Three other patents were declared invalid in the same hearing. HTC is currently meeting Apple in several courtrooms around the world, including the UK, Holland, and the US. A piece about the UK ruling on TG Daily says that the court in Munich, scheduled to hear the same patent argument later, will be even less likely to rule in favor of Apple now. It also says Apple is expected to appeal the UK decision.

In the US, however, Apple found preliminary success in the courtroom. Apple is suing Samsung for infringing on several patents, including the “slide to unlock” feature, predictive text, universal search, and action selection when tapping on text. Judge Lucy Koh issued an injunction against two Samsung devices, the Galaxy Nexus phone and the Galaxy Tab 10.1. The injunction says that Apple will suffer irreparable harm if the devices are allowed to be sold to consumers during the trial.

The Galaxy Nexus is currently Google’s lead Android device.

Apple must post a $96 million bond to the court for the injunction to proceed. If Samsung is found not guilty of patent infringement, it receives the money from Apple to make up for the lost sales. An article on Time.com indicated that Apple is likely to win the case. Koh has released a statement saying, “Apple has established a strong case on the merits.” She also stated that Samsung has a right to compete, but not to compete unfairly.

Samsung has already appealed the ruling, according to CNET. Meanwhile, Google has announced that it will push a software update to the Galaxy Note 2 next week that will circumvent the issues being debated in court, allowing the device to be sold during the proceedings.